Graham to look at another Woody Drive area apartments proposal

GRAHAM ó Neighbors are expected to turn out to protest a planned apartment development in a neighborhood that had a similar project request turned down last fall.

Lee-Moore Capital Co. got 3-2 approval from the Graham Planning and Zoning Board in April for its Watercourse Apartments project. The company seeks to rezone about 16 acres at 1050 Woody Drive, just off Harden Street, from general business to conditional residential to build seven apartment buildings with 196 residential units.

Five buildings would be three stories tall, and two would be four stories. The plan calls also for a park area, asphalt trail, pedestrian bridge, swimming pool with cabanas, fitness facility, clubhouse, tot lot and dog park, and 320 parking spaces. Leases would be about $900 a month, and the complex would not accept Section 8 vouchers.

The property, bounded on one side by the eastbound Exit 148 on-ramp for Interstate 40/85, was considered for a major commercial development about seven years ago. The developer behind that project, John Fugo, told the planning board the main anchor store pulled out as a result of the recession, leading other planned stores also to drop out.

Last August, the city council turned down a request from Burlington businessman Dave Morton to rezone property in the Woody Drive neighborhood to build luxury apartments costing $11 million to $12 million.

Morton, who has developed shopping centers and residential projects for 25 years, said he envisioned a three-story luxury apartment project on about 13 acres just off N.C. 54, near I-40/85, sandwiched between Woody Drive and Whittemore Road. His request was to rezone that property from single-family residential to a multifamily residential.

Mortonís plans were denied on a 4-0 vote after about 175 petitioners challenged the request and some two dozen neighbors detailed fears of more traffic, increased crime, stress on schools and plunging property values at a council meeting.

The Watercourse project will be among the items considered at the councilís regular May meeting, at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.